Out of the past: June 26

1999

U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchison, the lone undisputed GOP hero of the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, was the main attraction last night at a fund-raising dinner and reception for U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau; more than 100 persons attended the reception at the home of Dr. and Mrs. C.R. Talbert Jr., and 50 paid $250 per couple for a private dinner afterward.

Southeast Missouri State University officials praised Gov. Mel Carnahan’s “vision” of technical education at a groundbreaking yesterday for the school’s new Otto and Della Seabaugh Polytechnic Building; the governor, who helped secure $5.6 million in state funding for the project, was the featured speaker at the ceremony.

1974

Complaints of rats and the threat of copperhead snakes among a jungle of weeds and junked cars in Cape Girardeau’s Red Star district have gone unheeded by the city, residents of the area claim; they fear the suburb may soon become a second Smelterville; Red Star lies between Sloan’s Creek and Johnson Street and is bordered by Bend Road and the Mississippi River; in the summer fields of unattended weeds become a breeding ground for snakes and mosquitoes; in the winter snow and ice make many of the hilly streets hazardous, and spring floods can place a third of the area under water.

A new site in Arena Park for the proposed construction of four tennis courts is approved by the Cape Girardeau City Council; as recommended by the City Park Board, the courts will be built in the flat area along East Rodney Drive immediately south of Cape LaCroix Creek.

1949

The Rev. Vernon A. Hammond, who will conclude his first year as pastor of First Christian Church in Cape Girardeau on June 30, delivers a special sermon in the morning titled “Now Carry It Through”; Hammond reviews the activities and achievements of the local church during the year; his report shows 41 additions to the congregation during the past year, an increase in the Sunday school enrollment from 169 to 260, a 41% increase in average attendance in the Sunday school and a decided improvement in the financial affairs of the church.

The cornerstone for the Southeast Missouri Baptist Foundation addition, 465 N. Pacific St., was to be laid in the afternoon, with the Rev. T.W. Medearis of Kansas City, general secretary for Missouri Baptists, as principal speaker, but the event is rained out.

1924

One hundred and twelve years ago today, the body of Louis Lorimier, one of the earliest and foremost of Cape Girardeau settlers, was laid in its last resting place in what is now Old Lorimier Cemetery in the north part of town; at the time of his death June 26, 1812, Lorimier was 64 years, 3 months old.

Edgar Mann, 30, farm laborer employed by I.H. Hobbs on the Bend Road north of Cape Girardeau, is seriously injured shortly before noon, when a tractor he is using to pull a disc in a freshly-plowed field, slips into a ditch and turns over onto Mann; he is hurried to a Cape Girardeau hospital, where an examination shows he sustained a badly dislocated right hip; Mann is married and is widely known in the Egypt Mills community.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at semissourian.com/history.